DP World

​Due to the opening of 2 new berths on the western end of DP World, Essex, it became imperative to protect the sea bed from scour from the container ships. GPS Macs won the contract to install 144 scour protection mattresses on the River Thames, with McLaughlin and Harvey as the main contractor. 

The process involved a 24 hour, 7 days per week schedule, and uses a 75m long barge and 200 tonne crane, to not only place the alignment piles for the barge itself, but also the guide piles at its stern. Once the frame was dropped with the 30m x 3m concrete mattresses, the guide piles managed the descent some 20m below the surface. We went from 1 mattress laid per 24 hours, to the maximum of 4, based on slack tides, with only an allowance of 100mm tolerance from edge of life last one laid, with 24 hour dive team coverage, to report the measurements from the sea bed.